Frank, For a rookie investor with low capital looking to build a rental portfolio, the best strategy is house hacking: buy a small multi-family home with a low down payment (FHA or conventional loan), live in one unit, and rent the others to cover your mortgage.

Aside from arbitrage, I am looking into multi units.

@River Sava small multi family 

Investment Info:Large multi-family (5+ units) fix & flip investment in San Francisco.

Is the property already zoned multi-family?

But if you know what you're doing in finding the properties and want a fixer upper, it's doable.I will say that the multi-family rental market is pretty saturated here though. 

Live in the multi-family for a year, then move back into your own home and rent out the unit.If if not ideal, it's worth the hassle. 

I'm new to real estate investing, but have thrown myself into learning as much as I can by joining a Veteran based investment community, have been working with my realtor and looking daily for potential multi family properties in the Dallas area for house hacking, which I've set myself an deadline to be completed by May.

My wife and I purchased our first home, a multi family, to house hack in late 2024.

What seems most attractive for now seems to be multi-family markets starting out and eventually moving into 5-20 unit properties for growth.